SOME solicitors and barristers appeared to be using the Probation and Welfare Service to carry out research on defendants which they should do themselves, Judge Cyril Kelly claimed yesterday.
He told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court it had been suggested to him that the number of solicitors and barristers attending at prison remand centres had dropped. The more he listened to cases the more he thought this was so.
"Anyone who disagrees with me is fully entitled to tell me that. I would like the criminal barristers' section of the Bar Council and the solicitors to make their observations to me on another occasion, said Judge Kelly.
The judge commented after an application by a barrister for the preparation of a probation report on his client. The court has been told several times in recent months that the Probation and Welfare Service is under severe pressure to produce the huge number of reports required.
Judge Kelly observed yesterday that the service was working on very tight staffing constraints. He said there were only six officers available to service the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, the busiest criminal court in the State.
He suggested that some solicitors and barristers were using the probation and welfare reports rather than researching their clients' backgrounds themselves. This was not true of all the legal practitioners before him but only of a number who worked in the courts.
The Probation Service was intended to assist the court in sentencing and should not be imposed upon wrongly, he added.
Responding to Judge Kelly's comments, Mr Fergal Foley, a leading criminal barrister, on behalf of the Bar Council, said he had no evidence that lawyers were not attending their clients in jail. Most of the clients were on bail and therefore the question of getting access to them in jail didn't arise.
Mr Foley said barristers didn't take "direct instruction" from their clients as these were taken by solicitors.
"There is no question that such instructions are not given the priority and consideration they deserve by lawyers working in this area," said Mr Foley.
A Bar Council statement also noted it was "regrettable" that the Probation Service was understaffed and found itself overstretched by the demands for reports. Their reports played an essential role in the administration of the criminal justice system.
"This calls for greater investment in the service rather than unwarranted criticism of other professionals working in this area", said Mr Foley.
Mr Foley added that probation reports were in demand precisely because they are so valuable. They were prepared by independent professionals who assessed whether or not a convicted person was suitable for probation, and helped the court to decide on either a custodial or noncustodial sentence.
"Noncustodial sentences, where appropriate, are a less costly manner of dealing with offenders than sending then to jail," Mr Foley added.